1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems and more particularly, to object-oriented management information models.
2. Background Information
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
As the capabilities, diversity, and size of computer systems and networks continue to increase, the complexity of system management also increases. Developing and unifying management standards for desktop, enterprise and Internet environments is a main goal of the Distributed Management Task Force Inc. (DMTF). DMTF standards are platform-independent and technology neutral, and facilitate cost effective system management. The DMTF's Common Information Model (CIM) standard is an object-oriented management information model that unifies and extends existing management standards, such as for example, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Desktop Management Interface (DMI), and Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP). The CIM specification defines the syntax and rules of the model and how CIM can be integrated with other management models, while the CIM schema comprises the descriptions of the models.
The CIM standard schema may define thousands of classes with properties and associations for logical and physical modeling. The schema may represent one or many components of an information handling system including, but not limited to, fans, power supplies, processors, and firmware. The CIM schema class definitions also include methods. Organization of the classes is accomplished by use of namespaces, which function as logical databases. DMTF Profiles are specifications that define the CIM model and associated behavior for a management domain. The profiles define requirements regarding the classes and associations used to represent the management information in a given management domain Generally, within a CIM Object Manager (CIMOM), profiles are implemented by different providers in one or more namespaces, The CIMOM provides an interface, which allows a provider to expose the instances of CIM classes, and a client application to read and/or write properties and invoke methods.
Many of the CIM methods include management tasks, such as, for example but not limited to, updates and diagnostics. Many of the methods and tasks/jobs may require a long period of time in order to be completed. As used herein, the words “task” and “job” may be used interchangeably. In a CIM environment, a provider may return a job handle to a client using the “Job” output parameter on the invoked CIM method, thereby effectively making the invocation asynchronous. The job handle may be represented by a CIM reference to an instance of a CIM class arbitrarily named CIM_ConcreteJob. The reference may be used at any time by a client to request an actual instance of CIM_ConcreteJob, and to check the status of a job. Providers are challenged by numerous issues, for example but not limited to, managing tasks/jobs, staying abreast of job status, restarting jobs that have been aborted, and providing a job handle to a client for each job requested by the client. The present disclosure may enable the maintenance of job status information even after an unexpected shutdown of the system, a reboot of the system, and/or a CIMOM being stopped and restarted. In other non-limiting embodiments, the methods, apparatus and products of the present disclosure may enable restarting jobs that have been aborted, for example as a result of an unexpected shutdown of the system, a reboot of the system, or the CIMOM stalling or stopping and being restarted. In other non-limiting embodiments, the methods, apparatus and products of the present disclosure provide a job handle to a client for each job requested by the client. In other non-limiting embodiments, the methods, apparatus and products of the present disclosure provide a cache for CIM job data/information.